Baylor has turned the tables on Texas in basketball

Baylor has whipped the Texas Longhorns in three straight meetings — once in last year’s Big 12 tournament and twice in this year’s regular season — setting up an interesting matchup in Thursday night’s conference tournament quarterfinals.

Only a year ago, the Bears had lost 24 in a row to the Longhorns before they broke through with a 76-70 victory in the tournament at Oklahoma City.

This season, Baylor beat UT 80-77 in overtime in Austin on Jan. 30. Baylor followed that with a 92-77 rout of its old Southwest Conference rival in Waco last weekend.

During the game, the Bears at times embarrassed the Longhorns. Baylor forward Quincy Acy, for instance, threw down 10 dunks in scoring 24 points.

One member of the Longhorns’ players spoke openly late Wednesday night about “taking it personal” when the two teams get together in the final game of four quarterfinal match ups Thursday in Kansas City.

The sixth-seeded Longhorns, at one point ranked first in the nation this season, seemed to take things personally earlier in the evening in an 82-75 victory over Iowa State.

UT forward Damion James had 28 points and 16 rebounds to pace the Longhorns. Afterward, UT coach Rick Barnes called James’ performance “tremendous” and said the senior forward was trying to get every rebound.

With the victory, the Longhorns created some positive vibes leading into their match up with the third-seeded Bears. At the same time, they have only posted a 7-8 record since starting the season 17-0.